Engineering Commons^™

Capillary Channel Flow (Ccf) Eu2-02 On The International Space Station (Iss): An Experimental Investigation Of Passive Bubble Separations In An Open Capillary Channel, Mark M. Weislogel, Andrew P. Wollman, Ryan M. Jenson, John T. Geile, John F. Tucker, Brentley M. Wiles, Andy L. Trattner, Claire Devoe, Lauren M. Sharp, Peter J. Canfield, Jörg Klatte, Michael E. Dreyer

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

It would be signicantly easier to design fluid systems for spacecraft if the fluid phases behaved similarly to those on earth. In this research an open 15:8 degree wedge-sectioned channel is employed to separate bubbles from a two-phase flow in a microgravity environment. The bubbles appear to rise in the channel and coalesce with the free surface in much the same way as would bubbles in a terrestrial environment, only the combined effects of surface tension, wetting, and conduit geometry replace the role of buoyancy. The host liquid is drawn along the channel by a pump and noncondensible gas bubbles …